


fast-sinking anchor

by kismetNemesis



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Heavy spoilers for TM 59, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Missing Scene, Other, References to various other ships, Spooning, references to violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 12:51:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15195176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kismetNemesis/pseuds/kismetNemesis
Summary: “I was wondering if I could stay here tonight. Since the cargo bay’s wrecked.”“Shit, yeah, you sleep there, huh.” Now that he was really looking, Gig could see that Echo’s hands were trembling, minute, fractured motions. “Well, I cleaned it up. Mostly. Sort of. But you’re welcome to stay here, I’m the only one that sleeps here.”-Echo sleeping in Gig's room post episode 59.





	fast-sinking anchor

When Gig got back from cleaning the cargo hold, Echo was waiting in his room. 

“Uh, hey.”

“Hi,” they said softly. They looked at each other for a long moment before Echo moved towards the door. “Sorry. I just thought--sorry.”

“Hey, no, what’s up?” 

“Oh, you know. It’s been... a day.” 

“I don’t know how time works in space, or in the Mirage, really.” Echo smiled tiredly and moved to walk past him again. Gig almost swore. “Wait. Seriously, what’s up?” He let his smile drop, as much as it pained him.

“I was wondering if I could stay here tonight. Since the cargo bay’s wrecked.”

“Shit, yeah, you sleep there, huh.” Now that he was really looking, Gig could see that Echo’s hands were trembling, minute, fractured motions. “Well, I cleaned it up. Mostly. Sort of. But you’re welcome to stay here, I’m the only one that sleeps here.”

Echo nodded. They did something weird with their arms that Gig only realized was an aborted hug after Echo was halfway to the couch. Ah, fuck, of all the times for Signet to not be here. For all that she wasn’t a real doctor, she was definitely better at this stuff than Gig.

“That’s where you can sleep. I sleep under the pool table.”

“Weirdo,” Echo shot back, the insult familiar and calming. They probably weren’t, like, _totally_ traumatized. Gig had been planning on playing some mesh games before bed just to get his mind off of everything, but he suddenly felt as tired as he did after streams. He was probably going to sleep for fourteen hours again. It had been a day, time working however it did, and time being so loose meant he basically couldn’t oversleep. It was science. 

He crawled under the pool table, ready to bury himself in a nest of blankets. After a few minutes of shuffling around, he found a comfortable position and started to drift off, only to hear muffled sobs coming from the couch. 

“Echo?”

“M’fine.”

The old Gig probably would have taken Echo at their word, but the sound of tears brought back memories of the Miracle, of letting his stream suppressor go and feeling that yawning, endless sadness. Besides, too much had been lost today in his hesitations. He needed to stop doing so much looking before his leaping. 

Gig got out from under the table and gingerly made his way through the room. Echo was curled facing curve of the booth, shaking with sobs. 

“Echo?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I come sit with you?” Gig felt a knot in his chest unravel when Echo nodded. They didn’t sit up, which confused Gig for a moment until he realized they wanted him to slot in behind them. Well, he wasn’t one to turn down a cuddle, and soon he swore he could feel Echo’s heartbeat through the hand he placed just below their sternum. 

“This is nice,” he said, honestly. Echo nodded. 

“I thought maybe Kent would be in here tonight.” The question caught Gig so off guard that he laughed. 

“Uh. Why?”

“Aren’t you two, like, a thing?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Oh. Uh, damn. Sorry, Kent. I thought it was obvious.” Gig blinked in the darkness. 

“I,” Gig started. “Okay. So we’ll table that one for now.”

“Fine with me.”

“It was pretty fucked up that we saw a bunch of people get killed today, huh?”

“Jesus christ.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know how to start.”

“It’s fine.” Echo’s breathing sped up. “It’s actually all very not fine, if I’m being honest.” Gig had a feeling they were answering his question, not whether he should have asked it. 

“Tell me about it. I don’t know how I feel about this revenge stuff.”

“It’s horrible, Gig. You can’t just do something like that.”

“He didn’t really have a choice--”

“You know he did.”

Both of them were quiet for a moment. Gig squeezed a little harder, and Echo sighed. 

“I love him,” they said, the statement incongruously simple. 

“In like a, a _love_ way--?”

“No. Maybe. You remember how it was on Quire.” Gig did remember. The four of them--Gig, Echo, Grand and Even--had flirted so much that Gig half expected to find people kissing every night when he came back to the tents. No one ever had, though, and then it had been a whole year, with Kent--

“But I love my brother, too. He almost got Ballad killed and then _lied_ to me about it.” Echo was furious, suddenly, a coiled spring in Gig’s arms. 

“That was--yeah, that was shitty of him.”

“He’s so obsessed with _revenge_ ,” Echo spat. “It’s just not that simple.”

“No. It’s not.” 

“Do you think Cascabel is his boyfriend?” said Echo, after a moment. 

“Fuck if I know. He never tells us stuff anymore and I never notice people flirting with me until it’s too late.”

“You noticed me doing it, right?”

“Well.” Gig couldn’t help but smile, despite the way something in his chest was making him want to cry, or sprint away, or hug Echo closer. “Sometimes.”

Echo wiggled, and for a second Gig thought they were going to get up, but they just turned themself around to face him. 

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“It’s not too late.” Echo bit their lip.

“For what?”

“For us.”

Echo leaned in to kiss him, and Gig kissed back, matching Echo’s pace. It was slower than he could ever remember kissing, and he mentally kicked himself for rushing in the past. 

He opened his eyes first when they pulled apart, and Echo didn’t smile, just looked at him intense and hungry. He could still see tear tracks on their face.

“As nice as that was,” he said quietly, “maybe we should figure this out when we’re less exhausted and freaked out.” Echo gave him a half-smile, then relaxed against him for the first time that night. “It was super nice, though.”

“For me too.” Echo buried their face under his chin. “Thank you, Gig.”

“Don’t thank me, kisses are on the house.”

“No, for--for looking after me.”

“Yeah. Uh. No prob.” 

Echo ran their hand up and down his arm, both anxious and soothing. “Take care of yourself too. You were kind of... restless today.”

Not restless enough, Gig wanted to say, he’d been knocked out for part of the damn mission, he wasn’t doing his part--

“I’ll try. I guess.” It felt like a lie on his tongue, but it was hardly the worst lie Echo had been told today. They nodded.

The two of them lay still so long in the darkness that Gig thought Echo had fallen asleep. 

“I still don’t know what to do about Even.”

“Me neither. But that’s a problem for future-Gig and future-Echo.” 

“I guess it is.” 

“They’ll be able to make better decisions if they’re well-rested.”

Echo laughed. “You got me there.” 

“Do you mind if I’m the little spoon for a bit?”

“‘Course not.”

Echo pressed a kiss to the back of his neck, and Gig hummed happily. Maybe they’d really get to be something. Gig found himself thinking of Kent, and Even, and even Grand a little bit. Things hadn’t felt stable enough for a serious relationship since the early Quire days, but maybe the opposite was true: maybe relationships could make stability out of chaos. They were supposed to be a crew, dammit. 

He just wished he’d started sooner.

**Author's Note:**

> Had to write this one immediately, thanks Andi for my life


End file.
